Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Anything related to gaming on Linux Mint including game discussion or questions concerning Steam or Wine.
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
sorted
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:05 pm

Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by sorted »

Hello everyone.

I'm brand new to the forum and still pretty new to linux, so please go easy on me as I attempt to correctly navigate all the rules and such.

Here is my problem... I have been using an old desktop for casual gaming. I had an nvidia card in it for the past year or so. I just got an old 6970, and I am trying to get that working and diagnose some issues. The desktop environment looks as if I had the nvidia card but hadn't yet installed the driver. I've done some research on drivers and found that, apparently, the driver for the 6970 is just supposed to load? I am stumped. it doesn't seem to have a driver functioning properly and I am not yet able to make sense out of the inxi outputs. I'm really hoping someone won't mind helping me out. Thank you in advance.

not sure what info will help, but please ask and I will do what I can to get it done correctly.

Here is the output of inxi -Fxxxrz, followed by the output from just an inxi -G

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-73-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.8 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: 970 Extreme4 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: P2.80 date: 08/05/2015
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: AMD Phenom II X4 965 bits: 64 type: MCP
    smt: <unsupported> arch: K10 rev: 3 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 2 MiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/3400 boost: disabled cores: 1: 800
    2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 bogomips: 27141
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Cayman XT [Radeon HD 6970] vendor: PC Partner driver: radeon
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DVI-I-1
    empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6718
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: ati,radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: radeon display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
  Monitor-1: DVI-1 mapped: DVI-I-1 model: 40H4030 serial: <filter>
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 70 size: 698x392mm (27.5x15.4")
    diag: 1021mm (40.2") modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD CAYMAN (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.15.0-73-generic LLVM 15.0.6)
    v: 4.3 Mesa 22.2.5 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Cayman/Antilles HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6930/6950/6970/6990]
    vendor: PC Partner driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa80 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-73-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: c000 bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.93 TiB used: 16.37 GiB (0.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: HD103SI size: 931.51 GiB
    speed: <unknown> type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1118 scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Hitachi model: HDS721010CLA332 size: 931.51 GiB
    speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: A3EA scheme: MBR
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: PNY model: CS900 120GB SSD size: 111.79 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0613 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 108.98 GiB used: 16.36 GiB (15.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc3
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 512 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sdc2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 32.5 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2292
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu-proprietary.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu.list
    1: deb https://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu/22.20/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http://mirror.us-ny2.kamatera.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://mirror.us-ny2.kamatera.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://mirror.us-ny2.kamatera.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rocm.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/apt/5.2 ubuntu main
Info:
  Processes: 227 Uptime: 12m wakeups: 0 Memory: 15.6 GiB
  used: 1.46 GiB (9.4%) Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5
  target: graphical.target Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11/12 Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.13

Thank you for taking the time to look this over. My apologies if this is just a dumb oversight on my part.
Last edited by LockBot on Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
User avatar
SMG
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 31307
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:15 pm
Location: USA

Re: Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by SMG »

sorted wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:31 pmHere is my problem... I have been using an old desktop for casual gaming. I had an nvidia card in it for the past year or so. I just got an old 6970, and I am trying to get that working and diagnose some issues. The desktop environment looks as if I had the nvidia card but hadn't yet installed the driver. I've done some research on drivers and found that, apparently, the driver for the 6970 is just supposed to load?
Welcome to the forum, sorted.

Your video driver is loaded. All looks good (from an inxi standpoint).
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Cayman XT [Radeon HD 6970] vendor: PC Partner driver: radeon
v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DVI-I-1
empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6718
class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: ati,radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: radeon display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2")
s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
Monitor-1: DVI-1 mapped: DVI-I-1 model: 40H4030 serial: <filter>
res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 70 size: 698x392mm (27.5x15.4")
diag: 1021mm (40.2") modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
OpenGL: renderer: AMD CAYMAN (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.15.0-73-generic LLVM 15.0.6)
v: 4.3 Mesa 22.2.5 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

I will let those who game give you feedback on that GPU's capabilities. However, I will say that sometimes poor graphics can be cable related. If you have a different port on the GPU you can try or a different cable, those might be worth a test.
Image
A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
sorted
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:05 pm

Re: Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by sorted »

Thank you for your reply. I will gather what cables I can find and test possible alternate configurations.

I will mark as solved when I get this correct. Until then I welcome any other input from anybody more versed than I in gaming with proton.

Thank you again.
User avatar
MiZoG
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 2216
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:30 pm
Location: Athens, Greece

Re: Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by MiZoG »

While in theory your HD 6970 can match / surpass many newer cards, it is not supported by current AMDGPU driver.
You're stuck with the legacy "Radeon" meaning no directx over vulkan via dvxk, therefore sadly no proton for you...
sorted
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:05 pm

Re: Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by sorted »

This is what I feared would be the case. Disappointing to say the least. also surprising, seeing as NVIDIA now seems to have better support? That is counter-intuitive based on all I heard about how bad they were with Linux. Thank you for your response. Should I mark this as solved since it really isn't solved?
rene
Level 20
Level 20
Posts: 12240
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2016 6:58 pm

Re: Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by rene »

sorted wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 11:51 am Disappointing to say the least. also surprising, seeing as NVIDIA now seems to have better support?
Certainly not -- for a more intuitive definition of "now" than one concerning your 13-year old HD6970 from 2010.

AMD circa 2012 went with an entirely new and different micro-architecture for their GPUs ("Graphics Core Next") and at the time mostly retired (active) support for previous architectures. For both Windows and Linux it stopped development of its closed driver ("catalyst") for older cards, and in the case of Linux donated heavily to the already existing open-source "radeon" driver to get it mostly to parity with "catalyst".

Vulkan and certainly DXVK is much newer, and one could say that the open-source community has dropped the ball on keeping "radeon" relevant in that context -- but really only were it the case that "gaming" on 13-year old graphics cards and on Linux would not be a bit of a niche playing ground to drop anything on in the first place. I.e., very few people care.

But don't worry: support for even halfway current AMD GPUs is far, far better from a Linux development standpoint than what up to now Nvidia has to offer -- and in fact, even 2010-era AMD GPUs work well with "radeon", even if then not for 2020-era Linux gaming purposes.

Yes, well...
Last edited by rene on Tue Jun 13, 2023 4:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
User avatar
SMG
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 31307
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:15 pm
Location: USA

Re: Radeon HD 6970 not working.

Post by SMG »

sorted wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 11:51 am Should I mark this as solved since it really isn't solved?
Your title indicates the driver is not working when in fact it is working. That part was solved. You also learned more about the capabilities of the driver in relation to your GPU. You can mark it [SOLVED] or [CLOSED] to indicate you are no longer seeking help.
Image
A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
Locked

Return to “Gaming”